Chapter 14 Part 4 | Lovers and Beloveds | IHGK Book 1
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The kiss edged away the misery of the day, mixing with the port that suddenly made itself evident in the languor of his limbs, a drowsiness that shifted to arousal as she opened her mouth to him. He remembered kissing her before; he'd brought himself, more than once, remembering that kiss and her slim waist in his arms. He slipped his arms around her now, and kissed her down against the cushions. She was here for him, his consolation. She was the girl who would open the road to Allis and Issak in the most delightful way possible.
One hand slipped from her shoulder to the tops of her breasts, mounded above her corset, and the pulse between his legs nearly burst the buttons of his trousers. He kissed her jaw and her soft, soft neck, where the perfume she wore mingled with her own natural scent. She wriggled beneath him as he worked his hand further into her bodice and freed one breast, the nipple hard between his fingers. He pulled away, wanting to see all of her.
Arta lay back, panting, hazel eyes full, face pink and turned toward the couch's cushioned back, her breast white and rose against the dark green velvet. White, rose, green.
Temmin started away, sick. "This is not what you want. You're afraid. Someone's making you do this."
"Oh!" said Arta, blinking back tears. "Oh, no, sir! I mean, yes! Yes it is what I want!" She wiggled the other breast free. "D'you not like me any more? Please say you still like me! Please!"
"Of course I like you, good Gods, look at you! Augh, no, not looking at you, not looking at you!" He got up from the couch with an effort and turned away. "Dress yourself, Miss Dannikson!"
"Please, Your Highness, please!" she begged. He heard the rustling of fabric. "Please...Temmin..." He turned at the unfamiliar sound of his name on a servant's lips, to discover she hadn't covered her breasts, she'd taken off her dress; she trembled above the green puddle of fabric, in only stockings, little boots, a short chemise and her awkwardly skewed corset.
Temmin did his best to think of Jenks in his underwear, but the charm had no chance against a nearly-naked Arta; his only defense was distance. He groaned and backed away. "If you don't put your clothes on, something's going to happen here, something neither of us want."
"You don' understand," she pleaded. "We have to do this. It's bad trouble for me, worse than you know. They can bring Fen in after what he did that time in the King's Woods--everyone knows what really happened. If Fen's taken for treason--oh, sir, they'll hang his head over Marketgate! Please! If Mr Winmer finds out you wouldn', he'll blame me! It's as good as killin Fen myself!" She broke into sobs.
Winmer would die, there was no way around it. He'd pluck out that little mustache a hair at a time, and then he'd stomp what genitalia the man possessed into a pulp, and then he'd hang him by the heels and let him bleed to death from his groin. "It's going to be all right," he finally said. "Come here, you goose. No, with your dress. I'm not going along with this little trap my father's set. Tuck yourself in--I refuse to do it for you. How d'you fasten this thing up?" Arta wept so hard she couldn't speak, but she let him maneuver her arms into their sleeves, resigned and limp. He figured out the fastenings himself, and when he finished, said, "No one's going to kill Fen. D'you hear me? No one's going to kill him. I won't let them." Arta fell against his chest, and he let her cry. "Dannikson, this is a very bad habit of yours."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you believe you are safe with me, and that Fen is safe with me?"
"Sir, he said--"
"I am the Heir. Winmer is a secretary."
"Secretary to His Majesty!" She went to wipe her eyes with the handkerchief, found it sodden, and shook it out as if to flick the tears and snot from it.
"Give me that," he said, replacing it with the last one in his pocket. He led her back to the couch and sat her down again. "Now listen, I will get us all out of this."
"It's no use, sir," she said mournfully. "Even if we don', you'd have to make them think we did. The staff prob'ly already think it. Fen'll leave me for bein untrue. But he'll be alive." She propped an elbow on the arm of the couch and rested her chin on her hand. "I wish I'd never left home, but when Auntie said there was a place for me here..."
Temmin only half-listened, but at that said, "I can't send you home. It's the first place they'll look. I have to send you both someplace else, at least temporarily." He got up and paced the room.
Home. Home was the answer.
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